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What The Dinosmasher’s Fury Dinosaurs Do

I know that Maximum Crisis comes out in two weeks, don't get me wrong.

But I think it's sad that we only get two weekends with Dinosaurs before all of the great True King support comes out to take them to the next level.

Why? Because when we get those cards, the focus shifts to the True Kings more than the Dinosaurs. I really like the spot that Dinosaurs are currently in right now: a fantastic rogue choice with interesting, varied lines of play that most opponents won't guess.

Regardless, I think it's worthwhile taking a look at all the new stuff from the Dinosaur Structure Deck to run through what they accomplish. You might have already noticed that Dinosaurs have popped up at the top tables of Regional Qualifiers, and that's even before the rest of the True King support comes out. It's a huge testament to their power level, so today I'd like to run through everything out of Dinosmasher's Fury and how it interacts with older cards.

Here's What's New
There are a lot of new cards to talk about, but the best starting point is Souleating Oviraptor. It has two once per turn effects that start most of your plays. The first lets you search a Dinosaur or send one to the graveyard when you Normal or Special Summon Oviraptor. The second lets you pop an on-field Level 4 or lower Dinosaur to Special Summon one from the graveyard in defense. Both abilities are extremely relevant, and your win percentage generally goes up the more frequently you can resolve them.

We'll start with the adding effect. Your most likely targets at this point are Miscellaneousaurus and Ultimate Conductor Tyranno. The former is a hand trap that protects your Dinosaurs from card effects for an entire Main Phase during either player's turn, and then you can also banish plus a number of Dinosaurs equal to the Level of one from your deck, after which you can Special Summon that Dinosaur from your deck for free (it dies in the End Phase). The protection helps a lot, blanking cards like Zoodiac Drident or Solemn Strike, and the banish effect can help seal wins by searching any monster you need.

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 2 Dinosaur-Type monsters from your Graveyard. Once per turn, during either player's Main Phase: You can destroy 1 monster in your hand or field, and if you do, change all face-up monsters your opponent controls to face-down Defense Position. This card can attack all monsters your opponent controls, once each. At the start of the Damage Step, if this card attacks a Defense Position monster: You can inflict 1000 damage to your opponent, and if you do, send that Defense Position monster to the Graveyard.

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Ultimate Conductor Tyranno is the new Dinosaur boss monster, and man is it good. You summon it by banishing two Dinosaurs in grave, so that's pretty easy. Then, during either player's turn, you can pop a Dinosaur to Book of Moon your opponent's whole field. That's already crazy enough, but it can also attack all of your opponent's monsters once each. If you're not satisfied yet, when it attacks a defense position monster you can immediately send it to the graveyard, avoiding effects like Zoodiac Whiptail from ruining your day.

Now that I've mentioned two unique effects that involve destroying Dinosaurs, let's talk about what you'll be destroying. Babycerasaurus and Petiteranodon are just different enough to warrant being different cards, and they're what you'll be destroying most of the time. Each of them Special Summon a Dinosaur from the deck when you destroy them - Babycerasaurus gets a Level 4 or lower, Petiteranodon gets a Level 4 or higher. The only other difference is that the monster that Petiteranodon grabs can't attack that turn.

Those are obviously great effects. If you can pop a Babycerasaurus with Souleating Oviraptor you'll not only get the Dinosaur from grave, but you'll get one from deck, too. Neither of those Level 2 Dinosaurs' abilities are once per turn, and you'll often be using them multiples times. That's especially true for Babycerasaurus because you can actually just grab another copy with its own effect.

Pretty nutty.

The other card I want to mention is a staple in Dinosaur decks right now, but will likely be a one-of if anything in True King Dinosaur decks next month. Lost World has a lot of effects, but there are some cool combos you can achieve with it using very few cards. First, as a blanket effect, all non-Dinosaurs lose 500 ATK and DEF. Maybe that doesn't seem like a big deal to you, but it helps Souleating Oviraptor survive extra turns, and it makes a 3500 ATK Ultimate Conductor Tyranno virtually impossible to destroy in battle.

Next, if you summon a Dinosaur, you can Special Summon a Level 1 Token to your opponent's side of the field. It's a Dinosaur and has 0 ATK and DEF. While your opponent controls a Token they can't target anything other monster with card effects, other than Tokens. Lastly, if a Normal Monster would be destroyed, you can destroy a Dinosaur from your deck instead.

All monsters on the field lose 500 ATK and DEF, except Dinosaur-Type monsters. Once per turn, if a Dinosaur-Type monster is Normal or Special Summoned (except during the Damage Step): You can Special Summon 1 "Jurraegg Token" (Dinosaur-Type/EARTH/Level 1/ATK 0/DEF 0) to your opponent's field in Defense Position. While your opponent controls a Token, they cannot target monsters on the field with card effects, except Tokens. Once per turn, if a Normal Monster(s) on the field would be destroyed by battle or card effect, you can destroy that many Dinosaur-Type monsters in your hand and/or Deck instead.

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The Token preventing targeting is great. It outs Drident, Fairy Tail - Snow, Forbidden Chalice, and so much more. But the real reason people are playing it right now is that it starts combos. If you have Souleating Oviraptor and Lost World, you can summon the Oviraptor to send a Dinosaur to the graveyard, in turn giving your opponent a Token. Then, you can attempt to use Oviraptor's effect to destroy the Token and bring back the monster you sent.

But instead of doing that, you can just use Lost World to destroy one of the Level 2 Dinosaurs in your deck, nabbing a Level 4 Dinosaur for free, likely Miscellaneousaurus. That gets you to a Rank 4 like Evolzar Laggia or Evolzar Dolkka, and leaves the Token on your opponent's field to mess with their effects.

Here's What's Old
I sort of mentioned two older cards already: Babycerasaurus and Miscellaneousaurus are not brand new to the Structure Deck. But the whole strategy doesn't quite come together until you consider some other cards as well. For example, Fossil Dig can add pretty much whatever you need it to besides Ultimate Conductor Tyranno. That drastically boosts the consistency of your deck, which makes Dinosaurs a good choice for a longer event.

Next, True King Lithosagym, the Disaster is a great option even without the rest of the True King support. You can destroy one of the Level 2 Dinosaurs and any other monster to bring this thing out, triggering the Level 2's effect in the process. That's without a doubt the best starting play that Dinosaurs have right now, usually ending with multiple Rank 4's or Ultimate Conductor Tyranno and a Rank 4.

If this card is in your hand: You can destroy 2 other monsters in your hand and/or face-up on your field, including an EARTH monster, and if you do, Special Summon this card, and if you do that, and both destroyed monsters were EARTH, you can also look at your opponent's Extra Deck and banish up to 3 monsters from it with different names. If this card is destroyed by card effect: You can Special Summon 1 non-EARTH Wyrm-Type monster from your Graveyard. You can only use each effect of "True King Lithosagym, the Disaster" once per turn.

I'm a big fan of the Dinosaur cards, and I'll continue to like them even when they get their True King support, even though I wish we had more time with this version of the theme. Dinosaurs haven't been competitive in a very long time, so I'm excited to see them thriving again! I hope you're ready for True Kings and True Dracos to take over tournaments.

-Doug Zeeff

Doug Zeeff hails from Michigan and is currently an English major in college. When he's not found emailing Konami about why there's not a single walrus card in all of Yu-Gi-Oh! you can find him regularly posting unorthodox, unfiltered Yu-Gi-Oh! content on his Youtube channel, Dzeeff. In his spare time he enjoys eating cheese, Overwatch, and, of course, playing Yu-Gi-Oh. Click here to follow him and his adventures on Facebook!

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